How to prepare a brief to get an accurate quote, hit your deadline and avoid endless revisions. The questions to answer before you start.
A good brief saves weeks of work and a lot of money. A bad one — or none at all — leads to endless revisions, missed deadlines and “but we agreed” arguments. You don’t need a 50-page specification, though: it’s enough to answer the right questions. Here is the checklist we use to build briefs with our clients.
1. The website’s goal
The most important point, and the one most often skipped. Answer in one sentence: what should a visitor do on the site? Submit a request, buy a product, book a consultation, download a price list, call. The goal shapes the whole structure: where the buttons go, which forms you need, which blocks appear on the home page.
Add a measurable result if you have one: “30 leads a month from the site,” “online sales without a call to a manager.”
2. Audience
- Who are your customers: individuals or businesses, age, city?
- Which device do they use? For most B2C projects in Uzbekistan it’s a phone.
- Which language do they search and read in: Russian, Uzbek (Latin or Cyrillic), English?
- What questions and doubts do they have before buying?
3. Structure and sections
List the pages you definitely need — for example: home, catalog, product page, services, about, case studies, blog, contacts, delivery and payment. It’s fine if the list is incomplete; the designer will propose a structure, but your draft shows the priorities.
4. Functionality
Describe what the site should do in plain words:
- request forms and where they go — email, Telegram, CRM;
- online payments — which systems: Payme, Click, Uzum, Visa/Mastercard;
- a customer account — what it shows;
- catalog filters and search;
- a price calculator, appointment booking, reservations;
- integrations: 1C, inventory, amoCRM, Bitrix24, delivery services.
5. Content management
Who will update the site after launch? If it’s your employee, you need a convenient admin panel: add a product, change a price, publish news without a developer. Specify which sections you’ll change yourself and which rarely.
6. Design and references
“Modern and stylish” means something different to everyone. Far more useful:
- 3–5 websites you like, with notes on what exactly (colors, presentation, animations, structure);
- 1–2 websites you dislike, and why;
- your logo, brand colors and fonts, if you have them;
- competitors’ websites — so you can stand out from them.
7. Content
Who prepares the copy, photos and product descriptions? This is a common cause of delays: the site is ready, but there’s nothing to put in it. Agree in advance what you provide and what the contractor does — copywriting, photography, translation.
8. Timeline and budget
Name a real deadline and the reason for it, if any — an exhibition, a season, an ad launch. And a budget range. Many clients hide their budget for fear of being charged the maximum. In practice this gets in the way: the contractor can’t tell whether to propose a minimal version or the full feature set.
9. Technical details
- Do you already have a domain and hosting, and who are they registered to?
- Is there an old site: what should be migrated, which pages rank well in search?
- Do you need analytics (Google Analytics, Yandex.Metrica) and ad pixels?
The best brief is the one you’ve talked through. A 30–40 minute call clears up more than a week of messages.
What you should get back
After the brief, a good contractor should give you: a site structure, a feature list, stages with dates, an exact price and a clear acceptance process. If all you got was a number in a messenger, it’s worth asking questions.
Don’t feel like filling in a document? Describe your task in the request form — we’ll ask the right questions ourselves and prepare a free estimate.
